The Sonorities Festival is the longest-running (over 30 years) new music
festival in Northern Ireland. Run by the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at
Queen’s University Belfast School of Music & Sonic Arts (the only academic
department I have ever seen with that appellation), it brought together some of
the most outstanding work in electroacoustic music from across the world. The
festival used to be biennial, but it has been annual since 2006.
SARC has a really impressive facility called the Sonic Lab, which is in its
own building. It is a performance and research...Read more

time off april 2007

The songs of Erdem Helvacioglu act like rolling mists that creep in, envelop you and unfurl with subtle splendour. Reminiscent of the expansive ambience and echo of Stars Of The Lid, Lanterna or Arvo Pärt, these seven extended pieces are based around solo acoustic guitar compositions, then given fl esh and feeling through their manipulation of electronics and effects. Ghosts in the machine swirl throughout the background and propel the sometimes formless (‘Dreaming On A Blind Saddle’), sometimes staccato (‘Frozen Resophonic’) guitar lines toward their inevitable conclusion...Read more

Written by Richard Marcus
Published December 02, 2007
It's a mixed blessing living in a small city that is home to world class University. Every fall a couple of thousand hormone addled, away from home, and without adult supervision for the first time, teenagers descend and wreck havoc from just after Labour Day until mid October when the reality of mid-term's hit. It's amazing how much they can do to offset all the positives in such a short time.
But not even a few self indulgent children of privilege can ruin having a teaching hospital with research facilities that are...Read more

Erdem Helvacioglu's Altered Realities arrived this morning all the way from Istanbul, Turkey. Using just an acoustic guitar and live electronics, Helvacioglu creates shimmering, glistening soundworlds, recorded in real time to DAT with no overdubs. This fact alone makes the resonant beauty of this music all the more remakable. And like many artists for whom English is not a first language, Helvacioglu manages to tease delicious new juxtapositions out of his song titles; "Dreaming on a Blind Saddle" and "Pearl Border on a Dune" are two of the most evocative I've heard in a...Read more

Tokafi Magazine May 2007

Can melodies live a life of their own? Can they be fragile or afraid? “Altered Realities” certainly suggests so. Tender themes and breakable motives hide in their shell of beauty to brave the storm of electronics howling outside, churning up metallic sand and dark dust and burrying a world of softness in its breath. But when the forces of nature have settled, all colours look as fresh and intense like the green grass of a flowing hillside. And there is Erdem Helvacioglu, strumming his guitar, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
You can keep the latter picture in your mind while...Read more

New Classics Magazine

SUB CITY 2064 - ERDEM HELVACIOGLU
Erdem Helvacioğlu is one of Turkey’s leading electronic music composers and his works have been performed and broadcast all around the world. His compositions have been included in prestigious festivals such as the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Musica Viva Festival, Primavera en La Habana and Third Practice Electro-acoustic Music Festival. He has received many international awards and as well as his electronic music he composes for theatre, film, multimedia productions. Helvacioğlu performs...Read more

Interviews

Interview with Erdem Helvacioglu
By Katharine Neil
Turkish musician and composer Erdem Helvacioglu has an international reputation for his electroacoustic music, and is perhaps most well known for the way he combines solo guitar with live electronics. As well as releasing critically acclaimed albums, Erdem composes for film and theatre, and has been part of the lineup of Turkish punk band Rashit.
Erdem is a long time user of AudioMulch, and we were keen to learn more about how he uses it.
- How does AudioMulch fit into your sound design and production process?
Erdem: I can...Read more

Erdem Helvacioglu, a renowned contemporary composer in his native Turkey, is emblematic of the ever-growing worldwide community of experimental guitarists. His music has been included in festivals, museums and galleries all over the globe. He has collaborated with Mick Karn, Jacob Young, Elliott Sharp, Per Boysen, and many more. Check out his website for full bio and credits.
What kind of music were you playing when you first became proficient on the instrument?
I started playing guitar when I was eleven years old. The first pieces I learned were technically easier works...Read more

Cyclic Defrost Magazine July 2007

You are in a snow-covered hilly landscape. All is still. The snow muffles all sound. The sun is obscured behind dense grey clouds. Thick fog cuts visibility to around thirty yards. You have been walking for some time. The landscape has been bleached until everything is a shade of white or grey. Then, something looms in the distance: a monstrous shape. As you approach, the shape takes form – it appears to be the beginning of a huge, steel bridge. You can’t see the other end of the bridge – it disappears into the fog.
Erdem Helvacioglu is one of the most renowned electronic...Read more

Tokafi Magazine June 2007

"Altered Realities", released on New Albion Records in 2006, has brought Erdem Helvacioglu world-wide recognition. Music magazines from the most diverse scenes have written about it, many have praised it for its intuitive dialogue between the electronic and the organic, between chance and careful organisation, between the romantic and the clarified, between the past, the present and a possible future - and created an image of an artist who will enter the stage with his guitar and a laptop and please sonology professors and fans of dreamy pop music alike. There is much more...Read more

Textura Magazine September 2009

SIX-STRING ALCHEMISTS: AREA C / ERDEM HELVACIOGLU / CRAIG MCELHINNEY / PILLOWDIVER / SLEEPING ME / TALVIHORROS
That textura loves guitarists should come as no surprise to anyone; textura's premiere release, for example, features the work of no less than four different guitarists (orchestramaxfieldparrish, Alexander Turnquist, The Retail Sectors, and Ryan Francesconi), each of whom brings his unique interpretative skills to bear upon Coleridge's Kubla Khan. Having also in recent times received a number of newly-issued recordings by other experimental guitarists, we thought...Read more

Jonathan Wilson Designs Interview July 2011

JONATHAN WILSON INTERVIEW
- Growing up in Turkey, how did you get your start in music and what initially drew you to it? Were your first encounters with traditional Turkish music or was it popular music?
My initial start to music was the popular music of the 80s. I have been a big fan of 80s hard rock bands and 80s synth-pop music. The big sonic world and the great production quality of the bands such as Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, U2, Van Halen have really inspired me to play the guitar and to think more about music technology. I remember writing letters to the fan clubs...Read more